Life is a Highway!

Since my last post was forever ago, obviously so much has happened - most of it fun, some of it not so much. For the sake of my time, I'll just give the highlights with as many pics as possible.

We had been enjoying summer with swim lessons and trips to the park and library until mid July when Colten got the flu. We were just pulling out of the driveway so I could go to the dentist when I heard a soft cough from Colten. I turned around to see bananas pouring out of him. I just stared at him in disbelief for a moment but Lady was quickly getting interested so I had to act fast. Luckily we were still in the driveway so I got Lady back in the house, and then it was back to Colten. I knew that I had to get him out of the car so I took a deep breath, put my hands in the puke and got him out so I could begin the clean-up process (and call my mom for help of course : > ). After this experience, I truly feel like a mom because I never would have even imagined myself doing anything like that before. Colten seemed to be better by the next day but then I got it, and of course Colten had it again the day after. But within a week, we were all healthy again and getting ready for our up-coming trip to South Carolina to visit Beth and Dave and to meet David!

Our trip was FABULOUS to say the least! It had been way too long since I had seen Beth so we were thrilled to spend time together and now with our boys too! David is absolutely amazing! He is so handsome and such a great baby! He trekked with us to the aquarium and to the beach, not to mention to the restaurants, and he was always in the best mood. I loved holding him, and Colten was really great with him too! I only wish we lived closer so Colten and David could play together as they grow (ok and so me and Beth could have our girl-time too!). We did so much and have so many stories but I'll just give you the highlights with photos. So here goes...My first time holding David; he is so precious!

Off to the aquarium...

Colten touched a snake!

And we toured the USS Yorktown. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. Cotlen and Daddy especially loved looking at all of the planes. Unfortunately Colten lost his favorite Buzz hat here but I didn't realize it until the end of our trip. So after lots of phone calls from home and after two trips to the Yorktown by Beth, Colten's hat is now on his way back to Ohio!!! Thanks Beth! You are the best! Here's a picture of Daddy and Cotlen in front of the Yorktown (and note the Buzz hat).

And now off to the beach! Because of Beth and Dave, we were lucky enough to go to Kiawah Island for Colten's first beach experience. Thanks guys!
After a brief period of rain, during which I was certain our day was ruined, the day was beautiful. I love this picture of Colten standing amid his name that Daddy drew in the sand.Colten loves the water, but he wasn't too sure about the waves or the sand between his toes for that matter : > But as the day went on, he seemed to have more and more fun, even if he never really became a fan of those waves : >

Aunt Beth and Colten flying the kite they got Colten for his birthday!

The Krieg Family!David relaxing during his first trip to the beach : >

Just as we were packing up to leave, I noticed Colten's footprints in the sand - too perfect!

And speaking of footprints, I brought a sand footprint casting kit so we could have a keepsake of Cotlen and David's first trip to the beach. We decided that it would be easier to bring sand home with us and make the footprints later. Aside from the spilled sand in our car (that still raises Tom's blood pressure), it was a success - even if neither kid was too happy about making the impression. In the end, Beth and I have our boys' footprints forever!

Here's Tom with the final load of beach stuff from the car; he was determined not to make another trip! LOL! Check out the beach shoes, Krissy : >
And here are a couple pics of us and the kids.

There is so much more to say as we also visited Fort Sumter, the open market, lots of restaurants, etc., but if I want to get this posted some time before I go back to school, I better leave it here : >
I was sad to go, but we could not have asked for a better time! Our excitement continued as we reached our mid-way point in Virginia because Tom and I found a Hardee's and couldn't wait to have hot ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. However, this excitement was short-lived because once we reached the hotel, Tom noticed that Colten felt warm, and then he wouldn't eat his dinner - a major red flag. So I grabbed the thermometer only to find that for some reason, it had switched to Celsius. Regardless, I knew that the reading wasn't good because it was flashing red. Thanks to the Cruz's, who did a quick over the phone conversion for me, I knew Colten had his first fever at 102.7. I was not ready for this and wanted to be home so badly, but we were 6 hours away. So after multiple calls to my mom, Krissy, Colten's doctor, and Candice and after lots of prayers and after very little sleep for me, we made it through the night and eventually home with Cotlen's fever holding steady around 101 until finally breaking on Saturday. So July was a month of fun times and mom firsts : >

We all had a week to recuperate before heading off to Columbus to visit Uncle Mike! And the fun continued at the Splash Pad and Dublin's annual Irish Festival. I have been so envious of Steph and Meg since their posts about spray parks and I really wanted to take Colten to one. As luck would have it, there is one right by my brother's house so we headed there early Saturday morning.

At first Colten was unsure so I had to run him through (but don't let me fool you, I loved every minute of it : > ). Slowly but surely, Colten started really having fun but Mike and I had to stay in too in order for Colten to explore the area; neither of us minded - if anything Colten was our good excuse to play without getting weird looks from the other people : >

There's a nice park play area next to the splash pad so we headed there to play and dry off next. Colten loves slides, and he also really enjoyed this bouncy plane.

After a quick change we were off to Dublin's Irish Festival, which happens to be the second largest in the world. The food was so delicious, and we were able to enjoy lots of the live music too.

After naps for everyone, we headed to the Ohio Deli so Tom could take on the Dagwood from Man v. Food. He had 30 minutes to eat 1 1b. of fries, and sandwich with 2 1/2 lbs of meat. Unfortunately, he wasn't successful but we had a fun time and yummy food - what more could you ask for : >

Thanks for a FUN weekend Uncle Mike! You spoiled us all as usual. We love you!

And thanks to everyone who read my super long update : > Enjoy the last few weeks of summer. I can't believe I'll be heading back to school again so soon; I think I'm going to cry even more this year when I leave Colten because we've had so much fun together.